Air data probe to debut at air show

Antelope Valley Press ^ | une 3, 2003 | ALLISON GATLIN

[BenLurkin]

PALMDALE - For more than 30 years, SpaceAge Control has been designing and manufacturing tiny parts that play a big role in everything from high-tech aircraft to race cars, manufacturing equipment to rockets.

The company, which has been at its present location on 20th Street East since 1968, produces position sensors and air data equipment.

"We have quite a few customers in the area," said Tom Anderson, application development manager.

With annual sales of approximately $5 million, the company employs about 20 people, he said.

That's double the employment of four to five years ago, but down from a more recent high of approximately 23 employees, he said.

While the company has grown over the past few years, the nationwide economic downturn has affected it somewhat.

"Fortunately, we have not been hit severely," Anderson said.

The company's products often are found on test vehicles at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. Most recently, they have been used on the F-18 of the Active Aeroelastic Wing program and on an F-15 used in a program to quiet sonic booms.

"NASA uses our products quite a bit," Anderson said. "Many of our products are based on NASA designs."

SpaceAge Control's latest development is an air data probe that will debut at the Paris Air Show this month.

Air data probes collect information important to an airplane's performance, such as airspeed and angle of attack - the angle of an airplane relative to the direction of the air.

"It's a weather vane for the airplane," Anderson said.

The new data probe is different from others in that it is designed to perform for 15,000 flight hours, much longer than is normal and beyond the lifetime of many fighters, Anderson said.

"We had to take it through a broad range of testing" to mimic the conditions of such a lifetime, he said. "You had to simulate a plane anywhere from Alaska to Hawaii and every type of flight profile an airplane might see."

The probe must be able to withstand a range of vibrations, temperature, shock and other trials.

"This product was probably our most severe engineering task ever," Anderson said. "This definitely was a severe test of our engineering abilities."

The resulting part is now ready for the customer, identified only as a major United Kingdom-based aerospace company, for production fighters

[BenLurkin]

"HEADED FOR GAY PAREE -- SpaceAge Control's air data probe, on the nose of this plane, will be displayed later this month at the Paris Air Show. Air data probes collect information important to an airplane's performance, such as airspeed and angle of attack, the angle of an airplane relative to the direction of the air. "

SpaceAge Controlphoto